Test of the Forest
by Mister Saint
Summary: How Ashitaka might have earned the guidance of the Forest Spirits en route to Irontown, had things gone differently.


Test of the Forest

The final descent of today's sun reminds me once again of my estrangement from home. My simple village, just like the sun it seems, is forever at my back. Home is the sun and this curse discoloring my arm is the moon come to chase my light away. Or at least, that is how it seems most of the time.

My feet throb and ache, but I am trying my best to ignore them. The wounded men traveling with us are quiet, withdrawn, and sullen. My loyal elk, the crimson-coated Yakul, seems to have no issue with bearing the worst of them and for that I am deeply thankful. They've lost everything since they fell to wolves earlier and in the face of their courage I have no right to complain about aching feet.

The mouth of the forest looms before us. Countless trees rise up from unnaturally dense underbrush like the teeth of some great emerald oni, yawning wide to devour us. Apes hoot warily from somewhere deep within… this seems like a profoundly bad idea. I look to Yakul, noting the tilt of his ears. His agitation shows clearly in the flick of his nostrils and droning, repetitive pawing of the ground. I feel my pulse quickening, a pate of sweat forming at the back of my neck.

"Ashitaka, is something wrong?" One of the wounded men, a cattle herder by trade, calls to me from a few yards behind. "You were staring into space."

I smile at him, my reassuring face a convincing fabrication. "I was just wondering how we are going to find our way through this place. If we hope to reach Irontown quickly enough to get medicine for you we will need to make haste."

The cattle herder gazes over the daunting aperture of the forest, thoughtfully, but not without reserve. "You seem to have a connection with things not of this world, my friend. This fine animal listens to you, so perhaps you could convince some other forest denizen to guide us." He shrugs. "Possibly?"

I wonder about his candor. Like me he is dark of hair and eye, even of skin tone… this comes as no surprise given that the world in which we live seems to be much the same way. Still, he has a certain ignoble quality about him, an earthiness of sorts. He is without question a man who lives apart from the simplicity of villages like my Emishi. My mind wraps itself around the thought that he might actually see me as some sort of mystic, when such is just not true.

"I can certainly try. Yakul, wait here with them for just a few minutes." I pat my noble steed on the bridge of his great nose to reassure him, gather my bow, quiver, and dagger, and steel myself. My nerves stand on end. It is as if the forest itself is warning me even as it calls for me.

Fazed, but not without resolve, I put one foot in front of the other. The darkness of the forest remains incomplete while the sun rides the crest of the sky, which is comforting. I know that I will have time to search the area before night falls and blankets everything in shadow.

The ground softens the further I progress. Moisture runs thick in the air, telling me that a water source lies near, but it is the hooting of apes that has my attention. I chastise myself for choosing an obvious watering trail without knowing the sort of animals that might frequent it, but by now it is too late to do anything about that. Leaves and brush quiver around me… I can smell them. The apes have me surrounded already.

Without Yakul I have little chance of escaping them without a scrap. Still, I put my heels to the ground. Their hooting streams all around me when I start to run, but the pounding of my heart nearly drowns them out. My arm burns, but I shove the sensation aside. The demon curse craves violence and hatred, but more than anything, it craves power over me. I can't let it smother me like it did Nago, the boar god who passed it on to me, I can't. And so I run.

Ape feet pound the moist earth behind me. Darkness cuts across my vision, parallel to an explosion of pain and light in the back of my head when one of them crashes headlong into me. Together we tumble over and over, skidding to a halt some distance off the path.

The curse continues to call for me, even as I breathe in unconsciousness.

I awake in pain. My neck throbs more than it actually hurts, which is a good sign. The darkness fails to clear completely from my sight, telling me that whatever knocked me out did so long enough to squander my precious daylight. A flash of anger rises in me, but I suppress it as soon as the blackish curse mark on my arm begins to boil.

"There he is. I thought you'd never wake up."

I can smell the great ape before I see it, the numbing aroma of warm fur and stale sweat. A dozen of its white-furred kindred stand off to the side of the forest clearing. They look on as if in judgment of me, but that doesn't bother me so much as the leader's presence does.

"Here we have yet another human trudging around in our village. And for what? The wolves and the boars fight the humans to protect our home from creatures like you." Its tone is accusing for sure. Somehow, it doesn't occur to me to ask how this creature can speak my language. "Why are you here?"

I sit up, though the effort of it takes my breath. "I am Ashitaka, from the village Emishi. I came because of this," here I raise my cursed arm to display the caliginous mar along my skin, "and because I need to get to Irontown."

A round of excited chatter flowed like high tide amongst the gathered ranks of apes. I wondered what their agitation might portend, but kept quiet.

"So you're the human who put poor Nago out of his misery. What makes you think you can control his curse long enough to do anything about it?" The lead ape stares piercingly at me as if trying to look directly into my soul. "You're just a human after all."

"Nothing," I defiantly answer its challenge, "but to not try is as good as suicide, isn't it? I can't just sit around and wait for this curse to kill me."

The leader of the apes nods his furry head. "I see. You're different from the humans in Irontown, Ashitaka. You sound like the kind of person the forest spirits could trust. I simply have to tell them about you, but… first, you have to do something for me."

"What is that?" I ask this genuinely. I know that the apes could have killed me easily if they'd had the mind to. Whatever favor this leader had to ask would be no imposition in the face of such generosity. Besides, refusing would stain my honor as surely as the demon curse stains my arm.

"We apes feel that you must be tested before you can continue into the forest. If you cannot control your curse, and keep yourself from abusing the power it will give to you, then we cannot let you leave this forest. You are just too dangerous to be left unchecked, Ashitaka."

I feel my jaw beginning to drop. "What sort of test…?"

"You must fight one of my best warriors, human, and keep yourself from using the power of Nago's curse to win. If you can do that, then we will accept you as a forest kindred and send you on to Irontown."

I can feel my eyes narrow, without my instruction. "I have no desire to fight your kind," I assure it, "for any reason. Surely we can come to some other agreement?"

The great ape bellows fiercely, setting off a chain of hoots and yowls from its gathered allies. "Fool! Can you not see good sense? The apes of the other tribes would eat you alive without a thought to consequence. You have been offered a pardon. If you won't accept it, then we will have no choice but to eliminate you and your curse in a single deathblow!"

I have to admit, its logic is air tight. Still, the time for me to face my demons has not yet arrived. Were I to accept this creature's challenge, the specter of misfortune would loom over me; if I were to succumb to the curse here, my death would come about just the same as if I let them throttle me.

"I can't. If you wish to try and kill me you can; it may prove your point as well as your gauntlet would. But to put myself in a situation where I risk destroying myself and others all in the name of a test is ludicrous." Ape voices murmur, but I rise, unmoved.

"We could take your life right now, Ashitaka."

"You would lose yours. And then what?"

My eyes harden in the face of their gathering fury. I reach for a bow that I no longer have, out of pure instinct.

"All I'm asking you is to let me go. I'll get the forest spirits to lead me to Irontown, where I will find a way to deal with this curse myself." My voice is again that of the warrior prince, noble and full of fortitude. "Either we fight, or we don't. But do not cost any more of my sparse time!"

The lead ape steps aside, then. It is clear that my fate is at the mercy of the gathered court, the beasts of the forest whose hooting and yapping tells me nothing of their intentions. I let my fists hang at my sides, and wait. That is all I can do, anyway.

Twenty agonizing minutes pass. At least my feet have ceased their throbbing.

The leader of the troop approaches me once more. Its eyes are blank as ever, as befits an ape. "We have decided," it begins, slowly, dramatically, "that your resolve, if not your intelligence, is worthy. And we," here its figure begins to shimmer, awash in an unearthly green glow, "the mononoke of this forest, have found in your favor. We will guide you to the human city you call Irontown if that is what you wish of us."

I cannot believe my ears. Fury rises in my chest, but good sense manages to strike it down before my mouth can overshoot my brain. "But… why go to all this trouble? Could you not have asked this without this mess?"

The answer never comes. A brilliant flash of that emerald glow blinds me, shoves away the waking world once again. I haven't the time to protest.

The moon has yet to rise when my eyes discern the world around me once again. Yakul trots obediently by my side, bearing a wounded man, as the mouth of the great forest looms before us. Countless trees rise from the unnaturally dense underbrush like the welcoming jade feathers of a benevolent dragon, ready to draw us in and protect us from the coming storm. It is only then that I recall the events that had brought me here, and though I listen closely for the hooting of apes, I am rewarded only with silence.

"Ashitaka, is something wrong?" One of the wounded men calls to me from a few yards behind. "You were staring into space."

I turn, and set a reassuring smile upon him. "I was asking the forest spirits for aid. We will be in Irontown before you know it."


End file.
